COTTON USA – quality, purity and responsibility

With the claims of “quality, purity and responsibility,” COTTON USA is putting responsible cotton cultivation in the United States at the center of its trade fair message for Heimtextil 2016, thereby showing its support for manufacturers and retailers, helping them in their quest to offer responsibly-produced products. At the COTTON USA booth in hall 8.0/H60, the trade can gather information on the global cotton market and responsibly-produced U.S. cotton, as well as find out how the CottonLEADS^® program helps to identify suppliers using U.S. cotton, ensuring they take the first decisive step towards a sustainable supply chain.

As a global brand for high-quality cotton products, COTTON USA stands for the most important natural fiber – namely cotton – which is one of the most environmentally-friendly and socially-compatible fibers in the global market. Responsibly-produced U.S. cotton provides necessary sustainability throughout the entire supply chain. Sustainable agricultural practices have been used in the United States for more than 30 years. Such practices seek to preserve land for future generations, and to continually support environmentally-friendly and energy-conscious production. Since cotton in the United States is aligned with other food crops, there are extensive, binding federal regulations that must be followed in cotton production. Consequently, the United States is one of the leading countries producing responsible cotton today. In addition, research findings and best practices are shared internationally to continuously optimize cotton sustainable cultivation worldwide.

The industry and trade both face increasing challenges of transparency in the supply chain. To meet such a challenge, after ginning and classification, U.S. cotton bales are assigned barcodes and sold worldwide. The PBI system, developed to identify bales in the United States, ensures the traceability of each bale from the textile mill to the cotton gin – to create transparency in the entire supply chain. The COTTON USA quality brand stands for innovative, advanced, environmentally-friendly and socially-conscious cotton cultivation and processing technology as well as unique, quality-oriented classification and control of all U.S. cotton fibers.

The COTTON USA booth at the trade fair in Frankfurt is the meeting point for the international cotton industry. U.S. cotton organizations—Cotton Council International (COTTON USA), Cotton Incorporated and Supima—provide visitors with comprehensive background information on the development of the global cotton market, the findings of current market and consumer studies, and ongoing sourcing programs such as COTTON USA’s proactive support with respect to procurement issues, which includes organized sourcing trips to important procurement regions. Marketing campaigns and collaborations with leading brands/retailers represent another focus of the international COTTON USA program. Consumer-oriented marketing and communication initiatives directly address consumers all over the world. Social media is becoming an increasingly important part of the communication strategy.

The international COTTON USA and Supima licensing program, as well as the trend forecasts and technical support of Cotton Incorporated, are additional resources in the comprehensive support program of the U.S. cotton industry.

At Heimtextil, CCI will present product samples from the new collections of international COTTON USA licensees such as Bassetti (Italy), Caliphil (Taiwan), Cogal and Camillatex (Italy), Graser Exclusive Bettwäsche (Germany), Kimpeks and Nesa (Turkey), Liztex (Guatemala), Ningbo Guangyuan, Sunvim and Shijiazhuang Changshan (China), Textiles Brito and Zermatex (Mexico) and Zucchi Group (Italy).